Nightmaref5 - "Optimism Wins The Day"

State Of Mind: "Final Fantasy XII"

People who know me know that I make no secret that this might be my favorite in the "Final Fantasy" series of games. However, this seems to be among the most divisive entries for some reason. I'd like to examine why I love it when other hate it.

"Final Fantasy XII" follows the story of a rebellion attempting to put the proper princess, a young woman named Ashe, back into power during a major war between two large countries. There's a lot more to the story than that, including magical crystals (when aren't there magical crystals?), a war against the gods, and several plot twists and reveals. I never quite understood the story. It starts out simply enough, with the story being told from the perspective of street rat Vaan, who lives in the country in between the two warring ones. However, it quickly becomes tangled, as many more characters are introduced and plot elements begin piling up. You find out that this was never really Vaan's story, the bad guy isn't actually the bad guy (this actually happens several times), the war has more motives than originally thought, and something about the gods seeing the future and controlling minds. It all becomes really hard to follow, especially on a first play through.

In addition to the muddled story, the characters are also pretty forgettable. After X did such a great job of creating colorful and interesting characters, it was disappointing to see XII take a step backward in that regard. None of the characters really have any real personalities. They are all pretty much just serious, strong, goal-oriented blank slates that aren't given any defining characteristics apart from whatever goal it is that they are trying to achieve. There are two exceptions, though they are on opposite ends of the spectrum: Penelo, Vaan's childhoos friend, and Balthier, a sky pirate. Penelo, I can only assume, was supposed to be the perky young girl archetype, a role previously filled be characters like Yuffie In VII and Rikku in X. However, to match the game's atmopshere, her "perkiness" is severely toned down, so it ends up just coming off as a couple of random quips and stupid questions throughout the game. To make matters worse, she has absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the game. She is there for no other reason than to give you a sixth party member. It's even worse than the also superfluous Vaan, since he at least has the excuse of avenging his soldier brother. (The original lead character was supposed to be a soldier named Basch, who, while still a major character and party member, had the focus taken away from him when it was thought that a more relatable protagonist was needed.) Penelo is, by far, my least favorite character in the game, both for her "personality" and her complete irrelevance to the plot. On the other hand, there's Balthier. In a game with so few good characters, Balthier is so memorable that it almost makes up for the general lameness of the rest of the party. He is an arrogant, but secretly caring, sky pirate who insists that he is "the leading man" of this story. He's a funny, compelling, well-designed character with an interesting backstory. Plus, in a story where half of the party is along for the ride for no adequately explained reason, he is actually pretty deeply intertwined with the matters at hand (for reasons both obvious and secret). In addition to his countless comedic scenes, he also gets some good tearjerker scenes and some show-stealing moments of heroic badassery. He is easily one of my favorite "Final Fantasy" characters of all time.

So, why do I love the "Final Fantasy" with the confusing story and forgettable characters (Balthier aside)? It's all about the world and the gameplay for me. Ivalice is enormous. You can spend all day just adventuring to all of the corners of the world and still probably miss a ton of stuff. Every corner is teeming with life, both friendly and malicious. There is a well-defined government, environment, social system, and mythos. There are tons of places to go and things to see. You can go somewhere a hundred times, and there's still a chance that you haven't seen everything that there is to see there. I spent over 100 hours on this game, and I still wasn't nearly done with everything it had to offer. Ivalice is a textbook example of building a complete and vivid world.

I may be alone in this boat, but I also love the battle system. I was wary at first, since this was the first "Final Fantasy" I had played without a clear turn-based system. I also feel as though other people hate it because it's so far removed from any previous battle system that the series has used (except maybe XI, which I never played). It definitely took some getting used to, but I ended up finding the new MMORPG-like system very deep and interesting. I loved being able to run around, see enemies on the field, and kill them as they appeared. It helped add to the world that they were trying to build, and it made it feel slightly more real when battles weren't taking place in some random dimension apparently reserved only for stabbing things in the face. Granted, I've heard some people say the opposite, saying that running away wasn't as effective as it would be in reality and that things could hit you when you were obviously far outside of their attack range. I guess those were all just covered by willing suspension of disbelief for me, that and the understanding that that was necessary in order to create a more balanced and challenging battle system. By the end of the game, I loved just running through earlier areas and killing things in one hit, racking up tons of LP as I went. One surefire way of gauging my enjoyment of an RPG is by how much I enjoy grinding in it. By that standard, XII gets a huge thumbs up from me.

So, there you have it. That's why I love one of the most divisive and detested games in the "Final Fantasy" oeuvre. Mind you, I sometimes go back and forth between this, X, and VI, but this one ends up on top more often than not. I love the world, the hunts, the Balthier, and the battle system enough to vastly outweigh any negative thoughts I may have toward this game. So, go forth, and happy hunting!

A Review: "Wreck-It Ralph"

Oh, Disney. I thought we had lost you for a bit there. After Pixar became legendary, you were just kinda left there pooping out movies like "Home on the Range" and "Chicken Little". You had gone from "amazing" to "meh", and, for a while, it seemed as though there was no going back. However, like many characters from your movies, you pulled yourself up, dusted yourself out, and started pumping out great movies again. "Princess and the Frog", "Tangled", and now this.

"Wreck-It Ralph" tells the story of Ralph, a classic video game villain from the arcade game "Fix-It Felix, Jr." On the game's 30th anniversary, Ralph isn't invited to a party being thrown by the citizens of the video game. He had already been disillusioned with the concept of being forced to be the bad guy by the game's programming, but this was the last straw. He sets out to other video games in the arcade in an attempt to win a medal and prove his heroism. However, he doesn't realize that he has set in motion a plot that may just ruin his own game and get several other unplugged for good. 

This movie's strengths lies mainly in it's characters. Our leading quartet is very likeable (and the villain is very interesting, but I don't want to spoil anything). You always root for Ralph to succeed, even when his actions cause more harm than good. John C. Reilly is perfect at playing the misunderstood sad sack who just wants people to notice him (see also, "Chicago"). Felix is the perfect foil to Ralph. He's so pure and perfect (even when he doesn't want to be) that it becomes simultaneously hilarious and endearing. Jack McBrayer brings just the right amount of peppy and old-fashioned heroism to the role, while still knowing when to tone it back for more emotional scenes.

I did have a few issues with Vanellope, the glitchy outcast of a "Mario Kart"-esque racer called "Sugar Rush". She's meant to be the annoying sidekick who the viewers are supposed to grow to love. The problem is that she's a bit too good at being annoying. It's not so much her demeanor or her character; it's just that some of her jokes go on for too long. This lead to her rubbing me the wrong way in her first appearance, which kept me from liking her as much as I wanted to later. To the movie's credit, though, emotional scenes revolving around her still work, and I never wanted harm to befall her or anything. I just wish they'd toned her down just a bit. I don't dislike Sarah Silverman, but she needs to be used correctly.

The clear standout of the four leads is Jane Lynch's Sergeant Calhoun. As an amalgam of Samus Aran, female Commander Shepard, and pretty much every other "strong, independent woman" character in video games, the irony lies in that she probably is better written than most of them. She has an interesting backstory which actually informs her actions as she proceeds through the story and interacts with other characters. Not to mention that she has many of the best jokes, and Jane Lynch is a pro when it comes to snappy one-liners. Many of my personal favorite scenes were the ones between her and Felix which examined their different game styles and personalities.

The story is also great. It goes by at a decent clip, though it does get a bit bogged down in the middle while Ralph is trying to help Vanellope get a kart and learn to drive. Other than that, though, this is an original and interesting story, with a few more twists and turns that I was expecting. It's also very good at getting legitimate emotion from the audience. There were a couple of moments where I was questioning one or two things, but the movie is so good at world building that I could let it slide and just allow myself to be immersed in the world of the arcade.

Speaking of the world of the movie, it is beautiful. Everything is beautifully and diversely animated. Different characters and games are done very differently, down to the way that the citizens of Ralph and Felix's game move very choppily while characters from "Hero's Duty" are animated hyper-realistically. There's so much care put into every characters and detail, especially during crowd and panoramic shots and in Game Central Station. I just wish that we'd have had the opportunity to visit more game worlds. If there's one reason I would want a sequel, that's it.

I would be remiss to end this review without mentioning the various video game cameos. As a gamer, it was a lot of fun to point out all of the references that popped up. I was impressed by how numerous, varied, and accurate they were (for the most part). I also give the movie credit for letting them occur naturally and not allowing them to bog down the movie or make it purely a game of Spot the Reference. I don't know if they would alienate anyone who doesn't play video games as intensely as I do, but I think Disney managed to strike a very good balance.

"Wreck-It Ralph" is superb. You don't need to be a gamer to get it, though it does add a bit of an extra layer to things. It's full of great characters, amazing visuals, and real emotion. It's wreck-tacular (that's the tagline on the poster, and I really couldn't think of a way to end this...)!

P.S. The short that accompanies the movie, "Paperman", is really cute. I thoroughly enjoyed its story and its interesting animation style. I sense an Oscar nomination in this short's future.

P.P.S. You can download an actual version of "Fix-It Felix, Jr." for your phone that looks and plays exactly like the 8-bit version featured in the movie. It's free and a lot of fun. Check it out if that sounds cool to you.

Great Songs From Great Musicals: "How Glory Goes"

Once again, the title of this segment is tested. I've never actually seen "Floyd Collins", the show that this song is from. I haven't even listened to all of the songs (despite the fact that I have the entire soundtrack on my iPod). However, I've heard that the show is great, and, if the rest of it is nearly as good as this song, I'm inclined to agree. 

The musical tells the story of Floyd Collins (crazy, I know), an explorer who gets caught in a narrow crawlway while inside a cave in 1925. His entrapment and the efforts to rescue him become a media frenzy. After a few days during which he can get food and water from the people outside, the cave collapses, leaving him nothing but voice contact from the outside world. This is the final song of the show, sung by Collins as he prepares for his imminent death. It involves him asking God what happens next, what heaven is like, and if there even is a heaven. This song is absolutely beautiful, and it perfectly marks how people would actually react if they realized that they were going to die soon. The song is composed almost completely of questions. Floyd starts out shyly before becoming more agitated near the middle of the song. It's clear that his rapidly approaching demise is beginning to sink in. Near the end, however, he realizes some of the good things that might be waiting for him in heaven, such as his mother. What started out as a series of existential questions becomes a calm acceptance of his fate, and one might even say that Floyd's penchant for exploration excites him even now as he prepares to venture into the unknown. I literally have no criticisms for this song. Performed correctly, this just might be the perfect song. It's sad, triumphant, insightful, emotional, simple, and gorgeous. I almost cry every time I listen to it, and, for those who know me or have read my opinions on the Oscars, that's saying something. What makes this even more moving is that the story of Floyd Collins is real. He really existed, and all of these things really happened to him. That's what makes this song perfect. I can completely imagine exactly this going through his head as he died. When a song can illustrate thought processes and complex emotions as well as this one does, that song deserves all of my praise. My one issue is that the version used in the recording is not the best version that I've heard. While opinions will differ, I just don't like the way the actor on the CD sings it. I prefer this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCYQ3ewIpUs. The orchestration are magnificent, and his voice is just the right mixture of country and showtune. I could go on forever about how much I absolutely adore this song. It's one of those songs that you listen to, and, as soon as it's over, you want to start it over. I try not to listen to it too much because there's no way to spoil something great than by overindulging in it. I'm going to end this now because, at this point, the song can't possibly live up to my praise. Either way, prepare to be incredibly saddened yet compelled to listen to it several times.